School children name new oceanographic survey ship

Sea Power, Jul 1998 by DeGeest, Paul

Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton has announced the winner of the Navy/Navy League "Name This Ship" competition. A team of nine fifth graders from Oak Lawn Elementary School in Cranston, R.I., proposed the winning name-"USNS Bruce C. Heezen" for the Navy's newest oceanographic survey ship, previously known only as T-AGS 64. The Heezen, which is being built by Halter Marine in Moss Point, Miss., is scheduled to be completed in December 1998.

Bruce C. Heezen was an American oceanographer known for his work on plate tectonics and sea-floor mapping.

He died while conducting research aboard the Navy's nuclear-powered submersible NR 1. Naming the ship after Heezen, Dalton said in his remarks during the announcement ceremony at the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., is "particularly appropriate" because of Heezen's important contributions both to the Navy and to the U.S. oceanographic community.

The Division II (grades 7 through 12) winning team-from St. Martin's Lutheran School in Annapolis, Md.proposed the name Coriolis. Although that name was not the final choice, Dalton was "so impressed with the effort put forth by the students from St. Martin's," he said, that he approached the Air Force and secured an agreement to use Coriolis as the name for a joint Navy/Air Force environmental observation satellite, scheduled to be launched in 2002.

The Navy League had been working closely with the Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy since early 1997 to publicize and coordinate the shipnaming competition. Artist John Kaljee of the NLUS staff created an original painting that was reproduced on a fullcolor 17" x 22" poster announcing the contest. The Navy League funded the printing of 120,000 of the posters, which were mailed in July of 1997 to schools throughout the country.

The student teams participating in the contest were required to submit their entries by 31 December 1997 to Navy League State and Region Presidents for judging at the state level, using uniform criteria established for each of the two age divisions. The Navy League's State and Region Presidents formed judging panels to determine the winning entries, in each of the two age divisions, for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories.

The winning entries were forwarded to Navy League national headquarters, and from there sent to the Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy for the final judging. The National Capital Council of the Navy League hosted a special welcoming dinner for the divisional winners at the Washington Navy Yard.

Among the other dignitaries present at the "Name This Ship" Announcement Ceremony were: Under Secretary of the Navy Jerry McArthur Hultin; Vice Adm. James B. Perkins III, commander, Military Sealift Command; Rear Adm. Paul E. Tobin Jr., Oceanographer of the Navy; Dr. Robert Ballard, oceanographer and explorer; Dr. Ford Cochran of the National Geographic Society; Ralph Solberg, president of the National Capital Council; and Heezin's colleague, Marie Tharp, who helped produce the Heezin-Tharp Mapping of the sea floor. Navy League National President Jack M. Kennedy is scheduled to participate in the christening and launch ceremony for USNS Bruce C. Heezen later this year in Moss Point.

By PAUL DEGEEST

Paul DeGeest is the Navy League's director of marketing and development